July 9, 2011
Kids Fishing for Charity Event
This is usually my favourite event of the year and although I didn’t get to fish this year it is still the best. I usually have one of the grand children out for the tournament but we decided to tape the day’s events for the show. My son took both the kids with him this year and they both got a trophy so life is good.
The weather forecast seemed to change on an hourly basis and our hopes for sun were washed away by some pretty heavy rain in the morning. Thankfully it eased off in mid-morning and the awards and prize ceremonies didn’t get rained out.
The day is set up in a modified tournament format with each child allowed to weigh in one each of Yellow Perch, Smallmouth Bass and Chain Pickerel. Trophies are awarded for first, second and third in each age group for each species. The kids take this right to heart and there is a real sense of competition among them.
Shawn, my producer, and I hit the water and went in search of boats to watch the kids fishing and hopefully catch some of the action on tape. It is always a challenge trying to work with kids because you never know how they are going to react to the camera. We jumped into a couple of boats during the morning and hooked them up to wireless mikes and they did great. You wouldn’t even know there was a camera running. The general consensus among them was that they didn’t care that it was raining because they were catching fish.
There is always one thing that stands out in your mind every year and this time was no different. As we approached Ben Stokdijk ‘s boat one of the kids yelled out that they had a big fish in the livewell and before Ben knew what was going on he had reached into the livewell and pulled the fish out for us to see. One big flip from the fish and it was now on the deck with four kids between Ben and the fish. They finally got a grip on it again in the motor well. Just one more flip from freedom. As it turned out it was a first place Bass.
We also got to interview my grandkids out there and they never cease to surprise. When Shawn asked Ricky how the fishing was a what they were catching them on he went into quite a lengthy take on why they were both throwing a Silver Blue Fox in-line spinner. They both got a trophy and they both caught a ton of fish.
Bert Beek did the honours again at the BBQ and cooked up 160 burgers and 6 dozen hot dogs for the kids and their parents. There was also a special visit by the Oleary Buick GMC monster truck. The kids really got a kick out of it.
After the BBQ every child had their name entered into the prize draw and everyone went home with a prize. The trophy winners were announced and the presentations were made. The day ended with a cheque presentation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in the amount of $3594.00. What a great way to wrap things up.
All of this was made possible by the generousity of the NBSFA membership and sponsors and with major support from the New Brunswick Wildlife Trust Fund. We all recoginze the importance of getting our youth into the outdoors and participating in hunting and fishing. At the end of the day they are our future conservationists.
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